Tourist Development Council shares festival space

The Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council worked out an agreement with owners of the inflatable beach slide to share space for the return of the Sand Sculpting Festival in September.

Meridith South, media director of MDi Media Group, told TDC members during an Aug. 17 meeting that her only concern regarding planning was the fact that the inflatable slide is located on the east side of the pier, which is exactly where the festival was located last year. Plan B is to have the festival west of the slide but South said she didn’t know if that would be close enough to power sources.

Kate Wilkes, TDC executive director, said the county’s contract with the slide owners expires Oct. 31 but she doesn’t anticipate the slide doing much business toward the end of September. She said she called owner Tony Carraway to see if the slide would be closed by then, but he said the slide would be operating on the weekends in September.
Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin said the board of commissioners approved the slide contract for another location on the beach but the Florida Department of Environmental Protection made the slide move to its current location.

“We would have never agreed to the contract if we knew they would be in the sand castle area,” he said. He suggested formally asking the owners to move the slide from that area from Sept. 23-25.

For more on this story, see the August 25 issue of the Navarre Press or subscribe online.